70 Chaparral 2J - Motorsports Almanac

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from Troutman and Barnes in California. One of those was at the BRIC, too.) So few, really? Well, Chaparral Cars was small, efficient and unromantic, and kept turning one car into another. There were three fiberglass-chassied roadsters originally called Chaparral 2s (only later dubbed 2A by outsiders, when subsequent models appeared). After three highly successful SCCA seasons, 1963-65, two of those were given roofs and big-block Chevys to make them into 2D coupes for FIA endurance racing in 1966; a D won the 1000-K at Germany’s old Nurburgring. Then one of those Ds and the remaining 2(A) became 1967’s 2F coupes; one took victory at Brands Hatch in England. Three chassis, seven race cars. Rogers has now turned one of those Fs back into the “A” Hall drove at the BRIC; it happens to be the one that took the 12 Hours of Sebring in that form in 1965. The remaining 2F, the Brands winner, was on display only. Similarly, a series of aluminum-monocoque sports racers began with 1965’s 2C. That was modified into the first 2E, the winged car that startled the world in the inaugural Can-Am season in 1966. The same chassis later became the big-block 2G for 1967 and ’68. It was this in which Hall suffered a career-ending accident at a Las Vegas track called Stardust. Heavily damaged, that’s the one chassis that was finally scrapped, according to Rogers. “Jim couldn’t even look at a picture of it without getting the shakes.” The second 2E, winner of Chaparral’s only Can-Am victory (Laguna Seca, 1966), was at Road America and Hall briefly demonstrated that too. Totals: two more chassis, four more “cars.” Left home along with the restored 2D was the unloved 2H, 1969’s infamous “white whale” quasi-coupe, known fairly or not as Hall’s only failure. But present with honor was the 2J, the notorious, controversial Ground Effects Vehicle, or Sucker Car, of 1970. That one worked so well it was promptly banned. The seventh Chaparral chassis, it was to be the last of the Chaparral sports car line. Later there were some 2K single-seaters, which brought ground effects to Indianapolis and took the 500 in 1980. Wait a minute—haven’t we left out a Chaparral 2B? Yes, there’s a car in Hall’s collection called that, but it isn’t really a Chaparral. It was built as a research project by Jim’s engineer friends in Chevy R&D. Tested extensively at Rattlesnake, it taught both parties a lot, and led to Hall’s choice of aluminum for the 2C chassis. This was only one example of the clandestine cooperation between Chaparral and Chevrolet. Another was the Sucker, which began life in Detroit as another Chevy experiment. Rogers has to patiently explain all this over and over. He too must be incredulous about the crowds clustering around the four plain white old cars he’s minding. For so long, they were so secret. For decades, the public rarely saw them. Hasn’t everybody forgotten? Not likely. True significance has a way of living on, and besides, this setting points out the magnitude of Chaparral’s accomplishments in its day. A featured race for vintage Can-Am cars has brought together a good sampling of Road Runner rivals—would-be rivals. The most casual look at them shows how conservative, how conventional, how pedestrian, were so many creative minds in the racing world outside Jim Hall’s fence. Many are good race cars, arguably even better race cars, because they won more races. But... But they don’t stand tall in the mind like the tall white Road Runners from the barren Texas plains. JIM HALL Born in Texas in 1935 and raised in Colorado and New Mexico, young Jim Hall was a student at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., when he started driving his brother's Austin Healey sports car at weekend road races in 1954. That led to the purchase of a state-of-the-art modified sports car from the best builders in the business in 1961, but the results didn't satisfy him. Hall set up his own race car building operation. Thus was born Chaparral Cars of Midland, Texas. During the years from 1963, when the first Chaparral 2 was built, to 1970, Hall's engineering genius with enthusiastic help from General Motors technicians turned out a series of dramatic race car inventions that have left a lasting impact on the sport of motor racing. First came the ultra-light chassis, which some called the all-plastic car, but which was a chassis built completely of reinforced fiberglass. Then Hall staggered his competition with a high-mounted wing that rode horizontal down the straightaways but was tilted down in the turns when the driver released a pedal, giving him extra downforce in the corners. That innovation was banned when the competition cried, "Unfair." What followed was the fixed wing, which became Hall's trademark. Today's winged race cars are the evolution of Hall's design statement. Hall had already introduced a competitive advantage so subtle that drivers didn't know what it was for half a season — an automatic transmission for road racing. With it, Hall and his team drivers could steer efficiently through corners without taking either hand off the wheel to shift gears. The most radical was yet to come — the "vacuum cleaner" Chaparral 2J, described by one writer as looking like it was still in its packing case. Boxy in appearance, it sailed at incredible speeds through the corners, thanks to an auxiliary motor that created a vacuum under the car to increase traction. While it never won a race, it too was banned in response to competitive outcry. Hall, meanwhile, kept his best secrets to himself. He developed methods of testing at Rattlesnake Raceway that gave him data about what the car was doing at various sections of the track. By contrast, his competitors were satisfied with the lap times their stop watches were giving them. Working with Chevrolet engineers, Hall probably advanced the technology of racing more than any race car designer in that period. That may have been what prepared him for one of the most significant jumps in technology that Indy car developers have taken in the second half of this century —introduction of the Pennzoil Chaparral, Indy car racing's first "ground effects" car, in 1979. A year later his driver Johnny Rutherford won the Indy 500 and four other races, which combined with other top finishes gave him the first-ever combination of a CART PPG Cup IndyCar World Series championship and a U. S. Auto Club title. It also made Rutherford the consensus U. S. "driver of the year." Hall left Indy car racing in 1982 to concentrate on his other business interests but returned to the sport in 1991 with another bright yellow Pennzoil-sponsored car. Pennzoil persuaded Hall to return to Indy car racing after an absence of eight years. It began with a victory in the first race when John Andretti won for Jim Hall in Australia.
CHAPARRAL – RACE SUMMARY Date Circuit # Driver Qual Result 12.07.70 Watkins Glen, Rd3 66 Jackie Stewart 3. 1:03,690 DNF – 22 laps (brakes) (fastest lap 202,520 kph) 13.09.70 Road Atlanta, Rd7 66 Vic Elford 1. 1:17,420 6th – 69 laps (-6 laps) 18.10.70 Laguna Seca, Rd9 66 Vic Elford 1. 0:58,800 DNS – 0 laps (engine) 01.11.70 Riverside, Rd10 66 Vic Elford 1. 1:32,490 DNF – 2 laps (auxiliary engine) IMAGE GALLERY Vic Elford showing the prominent sucker fans at rear of the 2J. Chaparral 2J cockpit. Jim Hall trying his new Chaparral 2J. SOURCES http://forums.atlasf1.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65933 http://www.mulsannescorner.com/chaparral2j.html http://canam-at-lagunaseca.tripod.com/canam/chaparral/ http://canam-at-lagunaseca.tripod.com/canam/articles/birth.htm http://www.ashcom.homestead.com/Elford2J.html http://www.vintagerpm.com/chaparral_history.htm http://www.sandcastlevi.com/racing/chaprral.htm http://autoweek.com/cat_print.mv?content_code=08539017 http://perso.wanadoo.fr/buckhorn.wash/cars/archives/chaparral/chaparral.htm http://www.theautochannel.com/sports/pennrace/backhall.html © Compilation by Rainer Nyberg 2004-02-17 Fact-sheet 04/013
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70 Chaparral 2J - Motorsports Almanac

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